About me

Hi, I am a third-year Ph.D. student in the Department of Statistics & Data Science at University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA). I am also a member in the Lab for Statistics, Computing, Algorithms, Learning, and Economics (SCALE), supervised by my wonderful advisor Prof. Xiaowu Dai.

Prior to the Ph.D. program, I received two Bachelors of Science degrees respectively in Probability & Statistics and Management Science at Univeristy of California, San Diego (UCSD), along with a Master of Arts degree in Statistics at Columbia Univeristy in the City of New York (Columbia) fortunately advised by Prof. Michael E. Sobel.

My research interests are in the interdisciplinarity of Machine Learning and Economics. I am currently focused on refining and developing mechanisms tailored to the economy of machine learning-related products, such as data pricing and trading. I am also passionate about the opposite direction, which is to integrate economic concepts into machine learning model design.

My first name is pronounced as yuhng-chee.

Recent Research Endeavors

  • Machine learning data market design

News & Awards

  • Division of Graduate Education (DGE) Block Grant, UCLA, 2023
  • Recipient of the Statistics Department Chair’s List of Academic Achievements, Columbia, 2020
  • JSM 2020 Registration Award, Columbia, 2020
  • BS magna cum laude in Management Science, UCSD, 2019

Teaching

Courses TA'd

  • Spring 2024: STATS 13 Introduction to Statistical Methods for Life and Health Sciences with Prof. Hao Ho.
  • Fall 2023: STATS 13 Introduction to Statistical Methods for Life and Health Sciences with Prof. Dale S. Kim.
  • Summer 2023: STATS 10 Introduction to Statistical Reasoning with Kaiwen Jiang.
  • Fall 2022 - Spring 2023, Winter 2024: STATS 10 Introduction to Statistical Reasoning with Dr. Bingling Wang.
  • Summer 2022: STATS 10 Introduction to Statistical Reasoning with Dr. Michael Tsiang.
  • Spring 2022: STATS 20 Introduction to Statistical Programming with R with Dr. Vivian Lew.
  • Summer 2021: STAT S1201 Calculus Based Introduction to Statistics with Prof. David Rios at Columbia.

Reviews from Evaluation of Instruction Reports

  • "TA had a really good understanding of the material and could answer any question extremely well and was in general very helpful."
  • "I only have a year in UCLA and I can say without a doubt that Yingqi, by far, has been the best TA I have had! Coming into this course, I was nervous about the workload since there is a lot to cover in so little time but Yingqi is a very talented and knowledgeable professional and has made it so much easier. She has made this class very manageable, not to mention how on-point her discussions are, as well as the time she takes to pause and asks us for any questions we may have and she is also willing to meet with students after discussion to resolve any conflicts we may have encountered. You can truly see when someone cares about their profession, Yingqi emobies that and so much more. I am really grateful to have had a TA such as Yingqi."
  • "Ms. Gao is an excellent TA and I greatly appreciate her. Without her I would not only struggle with the class, but I would have lost out on valuable training of statistical methods for real-world problems. Before the class, I was terrified at the thought of doing statistical and computational analysis of huge data sets. Now I feel extremely competent and inspired to learn more about these methods on my own. I'm even considering a minor in statistics because of Ms. Gao. I appreciate her so much and she deserves every raise available to TA's."
  • "Yingqi was exceptional in her explanation of concepts and was clear and succinct in her instruction of the course material. She often went out of her way to connect concepts from the main lecture back into the lab section, which I found very helpful in understanding the lab material. She was also very helpful in providing resources after the lab section was over to complete the lab assignments."
  • "Yingqi is a FANTASTIC programming/ stats TA. She's so sweet and considerate towards her cohort, accommodating us with various resources, recordings, and extra after-class support. She's also an amazing teacher who was amazing at simplifying complex concepts. I would have absolutely despised the programming component of this class had I not been in Yingqi's section!"
  • "Yingqi was very kind and passionate about the material. Whenever I asked questions she would not only give me a response, but helped me understand why the code was written in a specific way over the other. Even if there were only a few of us who attended section, she was very inviting and tried to get to know us better."
  • "Yingqi is very approachable, which makes me feel supported and unafraid to ask questions. She possesses a great amount of knowledge about the course material, and she explains it in a way that does not further complicate the class material. In addition, she ensures clear communication with us students, announcing things that we need to know ahead of time. Overall, Yingqi's clear explanations and communication skills have been a great asset to our class.""
  • "This TA was sweet and helpful. I did join the course a week late and she made sure I felt on track. If anything was left unclear she always made sure to clear things out I really really appreciate that. This TA always shared new knowledge with us and we always left learning something new."
  • "This TA was so kind and helpful at all times. Even though she obviously had a busy personal life, she always made time for the class and made recordings whenever there wasn't section to help us on the labs. It was such a joy to be in her discussion. Her pace was very fast, but it was necessary to get through all the content, and she was always responsive to emails and was willing to meet outside of section and her office hours if needed. She never gave up on me if I had an issue, even if it was complicated. She was a bright energy in section which I think created a comforting environment for a subject that I was really worried I would struggle with."
  • "Yingqi was a great and well rounded TA. She really went above and beyond when it came to supporting us in doing labs. She is clearly very knowledgeable and is quick to address any concerns that I might have regarding R or material covered in lecture. I have nothing but praise for her as a TA. She was awesome and I would definitely take her section again if given the chance!"

Courses

Here is a selected list of graduate-level classes I have completed that are relevant to my research:

Statistics @UCLA

  • STATS 200A Applied Probability with Prof. Yingnian Wu
  • STATS 200B Theoretical Statistics with Prof. Arash Ali Amini
  • STATS 201A Research Design, Sampling, and Analysis with Prof. Hongquan Xu
  • STATS 201B Modeling and Learning with Prof. Chad Hazlett
  • STATS 201C Advanced Modeling and Learning with Prof. Qing Zhou
  • STATS 202A Statistics Programming with Prof. Frederic Paik Schoenberg
  • STATS 202B Matrix Algebra and Optimization with Prof. Mark S. Handcock
  • STATS 256 Causality with Prof. Chad Hazlett
  • STATS 211 Topics in Economics and MAchine Learning with Prof. Xiaowu Dai
  • STATS M231A Pattern Recognition with Prof. Yingnian Wu

Computer Science or Electrical and Computer Engineering @UCLA

  • CS 269 Reinforcement Learning with Prof. Bolei Zhou
  • ECE 236A Linear Programming with Prof. Christina P Fragouli